When hospice reverts to the lowest common denominator and leaders obsess about metrics, it's time to speak. Self-inflated leaders assume clinicians give until their backs break, given no raises for years. A clinical ladder is a rainbow’s pot of gold. Others have a sorrier job and must be motivated by money. Abysmal leaders dangle extrinsic rewards for admission, hiring and EDBITA targets. “Sign on” bonuses entice people into a poor work environment. Employees’ voice equals their raise, zero.

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Kindred Gentiva Choose Sides for Battle

StrangeTony,

The chaos at Gentiva stands to grow several orders of magnitude with Kindred's hostile takeover. It comes as Gentiva (per recent investor presentations):

3) Called for local marketers to sell home health, hospice and community care services. Also, Executives do sales calls with teams every other month.4) Conducted branch by branch clinician rationialization, i.e. slashed staffing yet again (in Q1, March at latest for some branches)5) Bonds are callable in August, but the company needs to focus on completing the Harden integration in the meantime.6) Gentiva would seek to acquire other companies in our space come August or September.

"Future fisher" Gentiva is now the bait. Kindred struck the day after Gentiva presented at the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch Healthcare Conference. Battle teams have been assembled.

Gentiva Health Services has engaged
Kekst and Company for PR support as it works to fend off a $533M hostile
bid from hospital operator Kindred Healthcare.

Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher is working with Louisville,
Ky.-based Kindred, which has also engaged proxy solicitation firm D.F.
King & Co.

The interesting piece is the promotion of David Causby to President and Chief Operating Officer. That came the day before Kindred went public with their $14 per share offer. CEO Tony Strange and Causby spoke to employees in a conference call, promising to keep staff informed every step of the way.

Gentiva executives are in the fight for their life, only they have golden parachutes to fall back upon. The rest of us aren't so lucky. The corporate battle is just beginning. Gentiva's level of chaos stands to grow exponentially, leaving employees and patients vulnerable to inattention and ongoing management abuse. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse....